s committed not only to the submission of the
amendments, but also to the advocacy of both woman suffrage and
prohibition. The animosity of the liquor league was aroused, and
this powerful association threw itself against submission. The
result was the election of a legislature containing so large a
Democratic majority that there was no ground for hoping that the
amendments would be re-passed and sent to the voters of the State
for final adoption or rejection.

Though the submission of the amendments was one of the chief
issues in the campaign, many candidates who pledged themselves on
the ground that they involved questions which it was the
privilege of the voters to decide, reserved their own opinions
upon their merits. There were, however, candidates who openly
espoused woman suffrage _per se_.[338] Knowing that a majority of
the members of the General Assembly were pledged to vote down the
pending amendments, the friends tacitly agreed to maintain a
dignified silence toward that body concerning them. The Suffrage
Society at the capital, however, appointed a committee[339] to
watch the interests of woman in the legislature; and through its
influence, special committees on women's claims were obtained in
both Houses. Disappointed by the result in the legislature of
1883, but not discouraged, the society continued to labor with
undiminished zeal, and sought every legitimate opportunity to
prove woman a factor in State politics.

Several weeks prior to the Republican nominating convention at
Chicago, June 3, 1884, this society appointed committees to
correspond with each of the gentlemen prominently named as
candidates for nomination to the office of president, and also
appointed committees[340] to press upon the attention of the
different parties the political claims of women. The society
instructed each committee to carry on its work according to the
united judgment of its members and continue it until the close of
the legislative session of 1885. The committee appointed to
communicate with the Republicans addressed a letter to each of
the thirty delegates sent by Indiana to the nominating convention
at Chicago. They also addressed letters to the Republican State
central committee, and through the courtesy of Mr. John
Overmeyer, chair